The opening round of the FIA Production Car World Rally Championship (PWRC), Rally Sweden was held in Karlstad in southern Sweden from 10 - 13 February. This year was something of a turning point for the WRC with a newly-introduced World Rally Car formula, revised tyre regulations and the all new ‘Power Stages’ where bonus points are given out. Karlstad was blessed with an abundant amount of snow, and once this event, the only winter rally of the season kicked off, temperatures plummeted to as low as -18°C.

The event favourite in the PWRC was local Swedish driver Patrik Flodin, who won the category here last year. On Day 1, he and Norway’s Anders Grøndal -both driving SUBARUs were locked in a fierce battle over the lead, finishing their first day in second and first, respectively. Immediately after the end of the day’s competition, however, Flodin was disqualified from the event after an FIA scrutineer found that the Swede’s wheels violated regulations revised this year.

As a result, Grøndal started Day 2 with almost 3 minutes over the second-place driver. And after a very good start in the first loop of stages, he extended his lead to 5 minutes 40 seconds, climbing the overall leaders board to 10th. However, 10 km from the service park, and on his way to the second loop, his engine suddenly stopped, forcing a disappointing retirement.

Subaru Challenge Awards Winners (Left to Right)
Driver: 1st-Sergey Karyakin / Co-driver: John Kennard 2nd-Driver: Gianluca Linari / Co-driver: Andrea Cecchi 3rd-Driver: Dmitry Tagirov / Co-driver: Anna Zavershinskaya

SUBARU’s top finisher in the category was Gianluca Linari, who managed to complete this tricky rally in the heavy snow to come in 5th after going off the road. Driving in his first WRC event, Russia’s Dmitry Tagirov ended his first day in a formidable 3rd. Although he had to retire on Day 2, Tagirov fought back after restarting the rally on the final day to finish in 6th place. Majed Al Shamsi from Team Abu Dhabi came in 8th, also getting series points in his first snow rally. The promising Russian driver Sergey Karyakin achieved the top prize of the SUBARU Challenge Award after finishing the event 24th overall.